Written by: Bradley Kern
Imagine being able to print anything you can design in full 3-dimensions, right from your computer. What would you design? A ball? A bag? A case? A toy car? What about a full functional gun? Well, that is exactly what Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, did. He has started a project called “The Wiki Weapons Project”, which states is “a nonprofit effort to create freely available plans for 3D printable guns”. The gun is called the “Liberator”, which would have been the first 3D printed gun of many. Recently the U.S Government, specifically the Department of Defense Trade Controls, has had him remove his 3-D blueprints, a little 100,000+ downloads later. The blueprints have already been passed around, many uploading the blueprints to sites such as Pirate Bay, where anyone can download it, including those who do not live in the U.S and may not have the right to own a gun. Thousands now have the blueprints to his gun, many of which don’t even have a 3-D printer in the first place. What worried many people with this gun is that it is untraceable, making it harder to find if someone printed and shot the gun.
Many things
went wrong with this project. Since the gun was digitally downloaded through
the web, anyone around the world could have downloaded the blueprint. This
violates the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which only allows the
trade of defense and military weapons if the Department of State allows it.
Since it was made of plastic, the gun violated the Undetectable Firearm Act,
which states that all firearms must be recognizable by metal detectors.
However, the files are now everywhere, sites like the Pirate Bay now host the
blueprint files, over 100,000+ people have downloaded the file. Many people
both praise and criticize the company. They have not be endorsed by the
National Rifle Association (NRA), though they have been endorsed by the Gun
Owners of America (GOA). Those who criticize it say that they are endangering
the public, even putting Cody Wilson on Wired’s
most dangerous people list. Rep. Steve Israel wants a ban
of the Wiki Weapon project and a renewal of the Undetectable Firearm Act. One
thing to consider with the Wiki Weapon project however, is how expensive and tedious
it is. First you have to buy a 3-D printer, some of which cost from $1500, to $80,000,
the $80,000 one being industrial size, while the $1500 is for smaller uses. Then
buy the special plastic cartridge used for 3-D printing, which is going to cost
you another $50 per cartridge. Not to mention the fact that it takes hours, to
even days before the printing is even done. It would be less time consuming to
just go and purchase an actual gun.
What this sheds
light on is the future of 3-D printing and what we can and cannot print. The 2nd
amendment gives us the right to own and produce guns (Guns cannot be made of
imported parts though), but can we do will still get that right if plastic is
untraceable. How long before 3-D printing becomes cheaper, and anyone who is
smart enough to design their own weapon, prints one. His files are out there,
and if he can create a 3-D printed gun, someone will surely improve off of
this. Keep in mind, I’m all for 3-D printing. I think this is incredible, the
fact he was able to 3-D print a gun, but what happens when bad people get
untraceable guns. What Cody did was show us that we need to evolve with today’s
technology; it also brings many questions to the table. How are we going to
adapt to the changing technological advances around us? Are we going to
regulate what can and cannot be 3-D printed? Is 3-D printing itself going to be
government ran and funded, or are we still going to leave it to the companies
and the people? Not everything in 3-D printing is centered around guns, right
now they are working on 3-D
printing functional organs, and have succeed with the first functional 3-D
printed bionic ear. 3-D printing has other features besides being a local gun
manufacture.
In the end, it
is all going to come down to what our government can and cannot restrict, and
what we will let them restrict. 3-D printing is becoming a larger industry
every day, and this event is pushing us to see what technology today is capable
of doing, and what people are capable of doing with that technology. Do I
believe that 3-D printed guns are going to “alter
the U.S government system”? No, but I do believe that it will become
immensely popular when everyone can get a hold of it, and what people will
create will become argued about even more as time goes on.
References:
